This episode delves into the significant advancements in fashion tech in 2025, focusing on AI, digital fashion, and virtual try-on technology.

With guest speaker Matt Astarita of Browzwear and host Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, they explore the acquisition of La La Land, the CaaStle fraud case, investor due diligence, the future of virtual try-on technology, and the evolution of digital fashion and product creation. The year 2025 marked a shift towards ecosystem integration and collaboration among fashion tech vendors.

Takeaways

• Fashion tech in 2025 saw significant advancements in AI, digital fashion, and virtual try-on technology.
• The year 2025 marked a shift towards ecosystem integration and collaboration among fashion tech vendors.

Chapters

• 00:00 Fashion Tech Advancements in 2025
• 05:17 Acquisition of La La Land and AI Integration
• 12:31 The Role of AI in Styling and Designing Outfits
• 17:56 Investor Due Diligence in Fashion Tech
• 27:48 Digital Fashion and Product Creation in 2025

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matt-astarita-07aa24a7/

Find out about Browzwear: browzwear.com/

Dr. Huamin Wang's Research World
Picture the future of fashion on your screens, where virtual garments behave just like the real ones, thanks to the power of 3D simulation and GPU computing. That's the intriguing world we're exploring with Dr. Huamin Wang, Chief Scientist at Style3D, a pioneer in the digital fashion software space. We traverse through a captivating conversation, discussing the technology shaping the industry, the landscape of the global fashion design software market, and how Huamin's journey of cutting-edge research has brought him to the forefront of digital fashion.

Style3D's Next Technical Advancements in Digital Fashion
Ever wondered how artificial intelligence could revolutionize the digital fashion industry? With Huamin we take a closer look at the precision required to translate real fabrics into digital ones, how GPUs are improving accuracy and speed in the creation of digital fashion 3D assets, and the role of motion capture and simulation algorithms for the human body to effectively render in the digital realm.

Join us on this journey as we explore the path towards a more visually realistic and beautiful digital fashion landscape.

Find out more about Style3D: linctex.com
Visit the Style3D Linkedin Page

This episode has been created in paid partnership with Style3D.

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Deciding When To Leave Your Regular Job & Start Your Own Venture
How do you know when the right time to leave is? Arie Katz has had to ask himself that question multiple times along his entrepreneurial journey. From making the decision to leave one start up to begin his own, to deciding when to part ways with multiple founders, his journey has been full of questions and taking risks to answer them. In this episode, we sit down with Arie and break down these tough decisions he’s made and how exactly he came to the conclusions that led him to continue towards developing his business, RoundRack.

Pushing Through & Developing Round Rack
Arie's journey is a testament to resilience and adaptability. Especially when your co-founding partners are not the people that you thought would be able to get the startup to the next stage. Arie unravels tough decisions that have forced him to pivot, realign, and evolve his business strategy, including parting ways with this co-founding team. Although now a solopreneur, Arie gives insights as to how he's making an impact with RoundRack, next generation materials, and sustainable fashion.

To learn more and get in touch with RoundRack visit their website.
Connect with Arie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariekatz

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Inheriting a traditional fashion factory in Pakistan:
Raised amidst the rich tapestry of a family-owned garment production business, Shahid Butt now helms his father's empire Shahkam Industries in Lahore, Pakistan. This episode offers a unique perspective on the balancing act between maintaining cultural heritage and embracing the cutting-edge transformations shaping the garment industry today. Shahid challenges preconceived notions of Pakistani manufacturers and invites listeners to reconsider the opportunities in partnering with local manufacturers.

Digitising a factory:
Shahid discussed with Peter the complexities of managing a vertically integrated knitwear operation, a challenge compounded by external factors like fluctuating taxes and environmental limitations. He shares his insights on transitioning from instinctual decision-making to data-driven strategies, revealing the pivotal role of AI and technology in modernising Shahkam Industries. We explore the pressures and privileges of inheriting a family business, as well as running the group's private label One Retail, and Shahid's vision for preparing it for future generations with advanced technological integration.

Find out more about Shackham Industries: www.shahkam.com

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Becoming Dean of Academic Strategy at London College of Fashion
The North West of England is not necessarily associated with fashion, but the small town where John Lau grew up is where it all began. From reading his first copies of Vogue, to working in America and China in John's early fashion career, to now becoming the Dean of Academic Strategy at London College of Fashion, John shares how he uses all of these experiences to shape the future of fashion education.

Embedding Tech & Innovation into Fashion Education
John offers us a peek into how London College of Fashion secures its top-notch ranking by nurturing groundbreaking programs that cater to the global market. Listeners will be familiar with the Fashion Innovation Agency from previous episodes, but tech and innovation are being embedded throughout LCF's DNA. John and Peter bring all of this together by dissecting what fashion students and upskilling professional need to do stand out in a highly competitive fashion industry. It's more than what you think!

John and LCF are featured in chapter 2 of the book Fashion Tech Applied. Check it out.

Find out about London College of Fashion here.
Connect with John on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

We have previously discussed in other episodes the different uses of tech in the fashion industry from NFTs to fitting solutions. Now what does all of this mean for brands or better yet, why might brands actually even consider implementing these technologies into their business models? Are they genuinely wanting to improve the way that they do business or are they simply being what we call “fluffy”? Fluffy being the defined as 'a brand using tech without real substance or a deeper meaning'.

Peter and I discuss the different reasons why this may be prominent in the industry and tips at the end to help you avoid joining the bandwagon with more thought when considering tech innovation and tech adoption.

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Incubating Inside Microsoft's Garage
When host, Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, first met Dr. Kitty Yeung she was a quantum physicist by day and a fashion technologist by night. Kitty's fashion tech journey was structured via a global Microsoft hackathon where she and a group of intrapreneurial colleagues decided to take on the mammoth task of solving fashion's overproduction problem by developing a software enabling on-demand production with a minimum order quantity of 1 unit. But is that even possible?

From On-Demand Production to 3D Assets
Having moved on from the Microsoft project, Kitty shares her insights from her role as a Senior Director of AI at Browzwear, where she's continuing to tackle the industry's problem through the lens of 3D assets. Kitty is taking it even further with her next startup, Wear It, combining AI, 3D assets and Gen AI into a digital wardrobe solution ready for social media. Kitty's foray into AI-generated clothing blurs the lines between algorithm and artistry, setting a new standard for global markets from the West to the East.

Kitty is featured in chapter 3 of the book Fashion Tech Applied. Check it out.

Connect with Kitty on LinkedIn.
Check out Wear It.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

IFA Paris' ambition to intertwine heritage and innovation
In this first official episode of the Applied Series where we talk to featured fashion industry professionals on the book Fashion Tech Applied, Jean-Baptiste Andreani, group CEO of IFA Paris, takes us through how French fashion heritage is being transformed by technology. We discuss how the school based in Paris, born from a love story in 1982, recognised the need to integrate more forward-thinking innovation subjects into their courses, and how global fashion education is embracing teaching new-age skills with traditional ones.

Integrating tech and innovation into fashion education
Jean-Baptiste takes us through how the next wave of creatives is being armed with the arsenal of a tech lab – think body scanners, fabric scanners, and 3D printers, all integral to learning by doing. We confront the cultural resistance to change, particularly in France, and shine a light on the exciting possibilities that await when tech-savvy graduates infuse traditional fashion settings with fresh ideas. This episode is a must-listen for fashion students, students-to-be, and any professional in academia.

Connect with Jean-Baptiste on LinkedIn.
Find out more about IFA Paris.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer valid until end june 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io